You're a Celebrity. So, Gimme Your Playlist.

Jessica Cakuls's Playlist

Release Date: May 23, 2009

Total:  23 songs 

$29.67 

Jessica Cakuls currently sells bridal gowns to the tri-state area's most discerning clientele.  She can be seen in syndication on "Watching Meta Cook...and Then Eating It," "Yes, That Is a Pancake I Pulled Out of My Purse," " How to Eat Five Breakfasts on a Table for Four," and "Obsessive Painting: The Formative Years."   If you are lucky enough to catch her in the flesh, she is probably out walking her dog, and you will probably see her with her face lifted to the sky, staring at a leaf on a tree.  She will one day be a financially independent individual; how she does this is yet to be revealed to her.  She believes in love, she once thought she was Jesus Christ when she didn't sleep for two weeks straight, and to her, everything sparkles.  Literally.  

"Scythian Empires," Andrew Bird.  "Really, this whole album is just remarkable.  It was so hard to choose one track, but 'Scythian Empires' and its lyrics - 'kings of Macedonia' - reminds me of Alexander the Great, whom I'm obsessed with.  This album was playing when I first hooked up with a very dynamic guy I fell in love with, and I will always remember being in his apartment, and the blue light caused by the night's falling snow, as we kissed.  It was heaven.  I also did my first painting as an adult to this album.  Incidentally, I cannot break up a song from this album into another playlist.  To me, the album is heard in it's entirety, or not at all.  It's utterly sacred to me.  Andrew Bird, you rule!  I'll follow you anywhere." 

"Sunday Smile," Beirut.  "Again, another album which, in it's entirety, I consider to be perfection.  This is the song that drew me in, but I heard about the band from Evangeline Lilly's playlist.  I was haunted by the 30 seconds I heard.   This album has seen me through from the most carefree of afternoons, walking my dog, to crying my heart out, in the dark of night, thinking of all the things I no longer have, and the people I've done wrong.  Utterly life-changing, and so simple in how it does it." 

"Sweet Thing," Van Morrisson.  "This song is simply perfect."

"Little Star," Madonna.  "Such a different type of song for her, a lullaby, actually.  I think of it as a song to the person I know I am, the invaluable jewel, the little star that was created in love: 'may the angels protect you, and sadness forget you, little star...'  I lost a man I had loved about a year ago, and he didn't really like Madonna's music, but he absolutely loved this song, and because of him, I looked at it with new eyes.  Amazing, what another person reveals to you."

"Last Goodbye," Jeff Buckley.  "I can remember, as an insomniacal high-schooler, being awake at about 2 am one morning, and this clip of new music from then-unknown artists came on MTV, and this was a featured song.  I had to stay awake to wait to see the whole video, and it was a song that played in my head for literally weeks on end and definitely was all I could think about all that next day in class.  I was obsessed with him, and I thought that I would meet Jeff Buckley before he became really famous, which I knew he would,  and tell him how much I loved his music, and that he would fall in love with me."

"Lonely Girl," Pink.  "This song is such an anthem for me.  Starts off with uncertainty, and then she uses the same lines in the chorus to shout out her strength and defiance at the end: 'I'm just trying to make all my dreams come true....'  It's amazing, and in one song, I see for myself the journey I know I will take as a person.  Thank you, Pink!  Your grit and your angst are the hottest and finest we've got from a woman in pop today."

"Read My Mind," The Killers.   "There’s something about their guitar licks and their lyrics, to me they are on the verge of a U2-like stardom.  They have an amazing ability to be completely and even painfully honest, but there’s a hopefulness about it all that cannot be denied.  When it comes down to it, they really just make me feel so good, and so alive, and reinvigorated.  Rocking out to this tune makes me feel so inspired and alive and energized that I feel like I could fly.  I want to jump all over furniture when it plays."  

"One Tree Hill,"  U2.  "An over-looked, absolute gem off of 'Joshua Tree,' another amazing album.  Utterly impossible to choose just one from their entire repertoire.  I think they're the greatest rock band, unparalleled.  They gave dignity to rock and roll music.  You could no longer call it 'The Devil's Music' when they came onto the scene.  Any song by U2 tends to be so gripping, so emotionally intense  for me, I actually need to prepare myself before listening to them, because they're just too much.  They hit a raw nerve that I allow to be struck only every so often."

"Paper Planes," M.I.A.  "I can be fairly 'in the cave', in terms of pop culture.  When I heard this song roll out during 'Slumdog Millionaire,' I was floored, by the visuals onscreen, and by this sound: so intense, so gritty, and so totally inspiring to me.  I was utterly a changed person when I heard it.   And I feel like the biggest bad-ass whenever I hear it.   A friend of mine made up a dance to it and one of my fondest memories, ever, was when she casually performed it, at work one day.  This song resonates through my cells."

"Smooth Criminal," Michael Jackson.  "Say what you want about his recent legal problems and accusations, but this man put the 80's over his knee and spanked it, and it walked away with glitter on its ass from his glove, and we all loved him for it.   No one had better moves, no one had better production, and no one will forget his 'Thriller' album cover.  I think every current pop artist who doesn't use an electric guitar owes a lot, a lot a lot to MJ as an influence.  This song energizes me in such a way... all I want to do is dance - VICIOUSLY - when I hear it." 

"Trouble," Cat Stevens.  "This song plays in the first 'Alias' episode, when she's telling Danny about joining SD-6.  It's such a heart-wrenching song.   I knew I'd heard it before, but it's forever tied to those images, and that sadness for her character, whom I'm obsessed with - I love spy chicks.  When I'm feeling frightened or sad, this is the song I instinctively start humming, without even realizing." 

"Hey You," Madonna.  "She's the Queen, and she out-Beatled the Beatles with this one.  It's totally the opposite of everything she's done, and I think it's utterly her most inspiring, most spiritually evolved song.  It cuts me right to the grain, so I can only hear it every so often. When I first heard it, which was by watching the video, I broke down in tears and cried, literally, for hours on end.  Heartbreaking, inspiring, beautiful, hopeful, and just divine....like her!"

"The Twist," Chubby Checker.  "Probably the most classic of oldies tunes.  It puts me in a good mood immediately.  How can you not be?  The Twist is like the first dance move every single person does as a toddler!  Go Chubby C. for coining the move and making one of the happiest songs ever created.  Pure joy."

"Light My Fire," The Doors.  "My dad was the music guru in our family.  I was listening to the Doors, Carole King, Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens since I've had memory.  This was always my favorite, and I'm forever grateful to my pops for introducing me to music in such an unconventional, fun, and psychedelic way.  Go dad!" 

"Girl From the North Country," Bob Dylan.   "This song kills me.  I forever associate it with the older brother of my best friend from junior high, whom I absolutely loved and adored and who I wish I still spoke to....The nostalgia of it, the heartbreak of it, the wistfulness, the bittersweet hope that Dylan clings to...it's archetypal."

"Michaelangelo," Emmy Lou Harris.  "Off of her 'Red Dirt Girl' disc, this is my favorite song of hers, which is a very difficult statement to make, because she's an amazing voice, an amazing song-writer, and she got Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews to do back-up vocals for her.  This woman don't play.  She's a legend in country music and for good cause.  She will split your heart right open with her voice and her lyrics and you will come crawling, begging, crying for more, it's that good." 

"Lola," The Kinks.  "The first time I did karaoke, this was my song.  It always puts me in a good mood and it invigorates me like the first shot of Jameson for the evening.  Plus, the embracing of youthful trans-gender love in a big city?  Hello!  Way ahead of their time, these guys.  They rock hard and they do it with so, so much fun, you know you want to sing and dance along."

"The Zephyr Song," The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.  "I imagine my dog, Diego, running around in the sand, while the sun is setting, on a beach in southern California.  I'm going to get him there someday soon, and when he's scampering around wildly, his floppy ears flying in the breeze, in front of a radiant pink-orange sunset, this song will be playing, and life is going to be utterly, divinely, perfect."

"Rainbow Connection," Kermit the Frog.  "Um, hello!!  This is the sweetest, most innocent song ever!  'Who said that every wish, would be heard and answered, when wished on the morning star?  Somebody thought of it, and someone believed it, and look what it's done so far....'  Who else but Kermie could take metaphysics and noetics and sugar it up for the Playskool crowd?  Jim Henson is a genius, as his influence still remains to this day."

"I Believe (When I Fall In Love it Will Be Forever)," Stevie Wonder.  "I heard this in 'Hi-Fidelity,' and, well, fell in love with it.  It made me believe in love again, in the possibility of it, in the existence of it, for me, and that it will be everything I want, and that God will answer my prayers.  Stevie can make you believe in anything."

"All the Umbrellas in London," The Magnetic Fields.  "This song kills me.  I don't know how they did it, but they managed to make an utterly sweet and sad ballad inspire me, and make me feel hopeful.  And the lyrics are TT: 'cause I've got a sense of perfection, and nothing makes much sense at all....' " 

"Chicago," Sufjan Stevens.  "I first heard this during a road trip to NYC.   The lyrics are amazing, because even if you haven't sold your clothes to the state, or slept in parking lots, when you hear them, you know know this guy is still describing your life.  It pushed me over the edge and I broke down in tears.  Again, another tune that is utterly brilliant in it's ability to both make me cry and yet inspire me fully.  At times I feel like he wrote it about me, and that I'm going to do something really amazing for mankind, and this song will be sung about me." 

"It's the Hard-Knock Life," 'Annie' Soundtrack.   "When I was little, I wanted to be Annie.  I wore a dress that was pink but I called it my 'Annie' dress, and I even wanted her dirty Depression-era clothes, and of course her fabulous wardrobe once she moves in with Daddy Warbucks.  I just wanted her life!  I thought I was Annie.   This soundtrack to the motion picture always, always lifts my spirits and reminds me of being a kid." 

So, fellow celebrities who are not quite as famous as you one day will be!  Let me know what you listen to and why, and why you think others should listen to it, too.  I want to know what's on your mind and on your Ipod.   Music is a gift and should be shared.